The Growth and Maturation of the Psychic Being Brings Increasing Power and Influence on the External Being

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We experience a growth of
consciousness during the

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maturation process, starting
with birth and continuing as the

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infant becomes a school aged
child, then grows into teenage

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years and passes through puberty
and the hormonal changes that

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come with that period, then into
young adulthood and experience

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of adult life.
Eventually, as an elder who

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hopefully has gained some vision
and reflection about life as he

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reflects on his experience, a
similar process occurs for the

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growth and maturation of the
psychic being the sole essence

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within each individual, although
that process takes place not

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within the space of a single
lifetime, but across numerous

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lifetimes, gathering the fruit
of the soul's experience without

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attachment to specific bodies,
lifetimes, or formations that

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may have been part of that
experience.

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This brings us to an important
and interesting observation.

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We cannot expect the psychic
being to wield the same

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influence in its initial stages
of development as when it has

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fully matured.
Each individual passes through

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these various stages, and thus
we have a continuum of soul

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development across not only the
individual soul's growth, but

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across the entire spectrum of
humanity.

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Just as we do not blame the
infant or the child for not

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having at that stage of life the
full mental capacity that they

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will have as an adult, so we
also cannot blame any individual

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whose psychic being is still
forming and not yet fully

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managing the external being and
its interactions in the world.

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And if we reflect on the growth
process, we begin to appreciate

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that there is no room for pride
or arrogance about one's own

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superiority, as it is not truly
a superiority but a matter of

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timing.
The butterfly cannot look down

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upon the Caterpillar because it
cannot yet fly, Sri Aurobindo

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observes Quote.
Moreover, the psychic being, the

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sole personality in US, does not
emerge full grown and luminous.

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It evolves, passes through a
slow development and formation.

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Its figures of being may be at
first indistinct, and may

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afterwards remain for a long
time weak and undeveloped, not

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impure, but imperfect.
For it rests its formation, its

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dynamic self, building on the
power of soul that has been

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actually, and more or less
successfully, against the

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resistance of the ignorance and
inconscience put forth in the

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evolution upon the surface.
Its appearance is the sign of a

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soul emergence in nature.
And if that emergence is as yet

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small and defective, the psychic
personality also will be

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stunted, or feeble.
It is, too, by the obscurity of

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our consciousness, separated
from its inner reality, in

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imperfect communication with its
own source, in the depths of the

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being.
For the road is as yet I'll

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built easily obstructed the
wires often cut or crowded with

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communications of another kind,
and proceeding from another

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origin its power to impress what
it recedes upon the other

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instruments is also imperfect.
In its penury, it has for most

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things to rely on these
instruments, and it forms its

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push to expression and action on
their data, and not solely on

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the unerring perceptions of the
psychic entity.

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In these conditions it cannot
prevent the true psychic light

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from being diminished or
distorted in the mind into a

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mere idea or opinion, the
psychic feeling in the heart

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into a fallible emotion or mere
sentiment, the psychic will to

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action in the life parts into a
blind vital enthusiasm or a

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fervid excitement.
It even accepts these

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mistranslations for want of
something better, and tries to

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fulfil itself through them.
For it is part of the work of

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the soul to influence mind and
heart and vital being, and turn

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their ideas, feelings,
enthusiasms, dynamisms in the

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direction of what is divine and
luminous.

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But this has to be done at
first, imperfectly, slowly, and

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with a mixture.
As the psychic personality grows

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stronger, it begins to increase
its communion with the psychic

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entity behind it and improve its
communications with the surface.

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It can transmit its intimations
to the mind and heart and life

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with a greater purity and force,
for it is more able to exercise

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a strong control and react
against false mixtures.

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Now more and more it makes
itself distinctly felt as a

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power in the nature.
But Even so, this evolution

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would be slow and long if it
left slowly to the difficult

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automatic action of the
evolutionary energy.

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It is only when man awakes to
the knowledge of the soul and

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feels a need to bring it to the
front and make it the master of

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his life in action that a
quicker conscious method of

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evolution intervenes and a
psychic transformation becomes

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possible.
End Quote Reference Sri

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Aurobindo and the Mother, The
Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter

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2, Hidden Forces within pages 48
to 49.